NYC shocks market with housing sweepstakes for apartments under $200,000 — near Central Park

The 17 studio and one-bedroom units in the antebellum building have hardwood floors and air conditioning and will be sold by lottery to New Yorkers who make less than 120 percent of the area median income and who no longer have much. of approximately $280,000 in assets. More than 10,000 people have already applied before the August 27 deadline.

The overwhelming demand underscores the city’s housing crisis, with its worst shortage in more than five decades amid skyrocketing rents and an influx of immigrants that have filled the city’s shelters. The sweepstakes, organized by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, placed a record 9,550 households in affordable units last fiscal year. Mayor Eric Adams is also pushing to encourage more residential construction and recently used rezoning to pave the way for 7,000 new homes in the Bronx.

The Upper West Side building — on West 80th Street — is one block from the American Museum of Natural History and Zabar’s gourmet market, and two blocks from the subway. It’s a few doors down from Orleans, where a four-bedroom apartment was recently priced at $7.8 million, while some cheaper options include a studio for nearly half a million dollars.

“It seems too good to be true,” said Ruth Miller, a retired foundation chief who recently drove by the building to check it out. She wants her 31-year-old daughter, who moved home as rents rose, to sign up for the lottery. “That’s pretty much why I bought my house in 1991.”

The sweepstakes, administered by NYC Housing Connect, allow those who meet the income requirements to apply only once per development. Buildings in the lottery program include properties built on city-owned land or units built using affordable housing subsidies or tax breaks.

For the building on West 80th Street, two-person households with a combined income of no more than $149,160 are eligible; three people earning no more than $167,760 could apply for a one-bedroom unit. The apartment must be the buyer’s primary residence, 5% down payments are required and there are resale restrictions.

The price reaches $340 per square foot, a bargain not only in Manhattan, but also in cities such as Austin, Texas, where the median market value of downtown homes is $738 per square foot, and Santa Monica, California, where the zip code median is $862 per square foot, according to Zillow estimates.

The city is also raffling off homes in other tony neighborhoods such as Hudson Yards, one of Manhattan’s priciest, including more than 100 rental units in a 46-story tower at 550 10th Ave., which has 20,000 square meters of amenities such as a sky lounge. and a fitness club. Two-bedroom units cost $3,861 a month for families of four earning no more than $194,125.

Buildings in Astoria, Queens and Manhattan’s Upper East Side are also participating.

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